About

Çağla Zıngıl, group legal director, joined Akkok Sanayi Yatirim ve Gelistirme, a company with operations in chemical, energy, and real estate sectors in Turkey, eight years ago as the only in-house counsel. Previously she had worked as a consultant lawyer for nine years at Garanti Bank, Turkey’s second largest private bank, and two years as an of counsel at Paksoy & Co law firm. When she started in Akkok most legal services were outsourced and corporate documentation was being kept by the finance department. Gradually she expanded the legal department to adopt this documentation and the associated workload. To do this she formed and structured the corporate and legal documentation filing systems. ‘We have applied and perfected corporate governance principles and internal rules and guidelines within the group and supported the formation of the Group’s Code of Conducts (Ethic Principles) together with other relevant departments. I believe we made our executives and our colleagues from other departments trust, enjoy and appreciate the legal support we provide’ she says. Heading the legal operations in particularly regulated areas of operation, such as energy generation, electricity distribution and production of chemical materials, following up on changes in regulations and their impact on the business is the most challenging part of the job for Çağla Zıngıl. Her advice to external counsel for improvement of service delivery would be ‘not to forget that business people do not wish to hear why they cannot pursue a certain transaction because of legal obstacles, but how they can overcome the obstacles to pursue the transaction’.